Highest Paying Finance Career Tier List (Finance Jobs Ranked)

This video is sponsored by Aura. The highest paying finance career tier list. That is what we're gonna be going over today. We're gonna be ranking different finance careers from S tier, which is the best to F tier, which is the worst from a financial perspective in terms of how much money you'll make. We'll also be talking about other factors, but primarily we're gonna focus on how much they make. So it's really difficult to find accurate numbers on how much you can expect to make in different finance jobs because a lot of the time it doesn't have as much to do with the job you're in, but more to do with the company you work for or the industry that you're in. So if you appreciate me doing research and doing these types of videos, go ahead, gently tap that like button and also share the video with somebody else you think would want to see it. And if you agree or disagree with any of these rankings, let me know down below at the end of the day. This is just my opinion. And if you think my opinion is wrong, that's totally fine. It's good that we all start a conversation that we can all learn something from. All right, so let's get started right away with vice president of analytics. So the vice president of analytics is in charge of the collection and analysis of data. And specifically in the finance industry, this is incredibly valuable. So you wanna be able to quickly collect data and then also decide immediately what actionable steps you should take based off of that data. Glassdoor has the average salary for this position being between 127,000 to 230,000. But you can see even higher salaries in the finance industry because data is basically everything. That's what gives you an edge over your competition. And finance is of course incredibly competitive. And I guess I should say that right away. This list is for people who are like A-type personalities. You're very competitive probably. You're okay working like 60 plus hours a week, not having a great work-life balance. But also people who are ambitious and they wanna have really high paying jobs. So with that being said, this one is gonna go into A tier. Next one on the list is going to be strategy consulting. So this is where you're working for maybe one of the big four accounting firms. And I guess like consulting in general, even though there's a lot of differences there, a lot of the time they will end up working in different areas of finance. So if you're like a second year consultant at McKinsey, for instance, you're an associate, you can expect to make over $200,000 a year in total compensation. And there's honestly a lot more to it than that. I could probably make like a five video series just on consulting alone. But yeah, consulting can be phenomenal. It's also a career path that leads to many other opportunities. This one is gonna go into A tier. Next one on the list is going to be entrepreneurship. So this is basically starting up your own business. And there is a ton of opportunity in the finance industry for this. Now this is high risk and also high reward, but there's a lot of exciting new fintech companies starting up in the space. And one of them is the sponsor of today's video, which is Aura. Do you guys know what the fastest growing crime that's affecting millions of people in America is? Well, the answer is identity theft. And there is a new victim every 14 seconds. A few years ago, my roommate had his identity stolen not once, but twice, and it completely turned his life upside down. And that's why I'm excited to partner with today's sponsor, Aura. Aura is identity theft protection, fraud monitoring, a VPN, password management, and antivirus all combined into one easy to use app. Now you might have one of these services already, but if you don't have all the tools, it's like locking the front door, but leaving the back door wide open. Those who have their identity stolen are often shocked when it happens. Imagine trying to log into your email account one day to see that your password has changed hours ago, and then you start getting notifications of activity from your bank, credit cards, crypto accounts, et cetera. It's scary and unfortunately a reality for too many people. Thankfully, Aura monitors the dark web for emails, passwords, and social security numbers, and sends alerts fast, right to your phone and email. I actually use Aura, and when I entered my email into Aura, they monitored the dark web and found that my email and password had already been exposed once. And when it comes to fraud, every second matters. You can connect your credit card and bank accounts, and you'll get notified of any changes up to four times faster than Aura's competitors. Aura's VPN allows you to stay anonymous online by keeping your browsing history and personal information safe and encrypted. Protect yourself and your family from identity theft at www.aura.com slash shanehummus. And if you sign up right now at aura.com slash shanehummus, they will give you a two week free trial so that you can see if you or your family's information has been exposed to the dark web as well. And I'm actually curious to know how many of you have had your information leaked to the dark web. So if you do decide to use Aura's free trial, let me know in the comments down below if your information has been compromised. Thank you again to Aura for sponsoring this video, and let's get back to the main content. So yeah, entrepreneurship, lots of opportunity, really phenomenal. I think everybody knows this, don't need to go into too much detail. Another thing is finance is one of the industries that has the most opportunity, and a lot of the time you are seeing the combination of finance and technology. Technology is also a phenomenal industry as well. And so if you start a business in one of these industries, you're gonna have a much better chance of success. So yeah, entrepreneurship is S tier. All right, so I'm gonna go over these really fast so I can keep this video relatively short. Not gonna explain these decisions all that much. So tax director is gonna be next one on the list. Glassdoor has been making about 123 to $210,000 per year. This one goes into A tier. Now, if you go into banking, you can expect to make somewhere between 90 to $140,000 a year right off the bat. So banking can be really good, but it's also really competitive. Investment banking is next on the list, and this is something where you might do something like mergers and acquisitions, IPOs, debt refinancing, et cetera. And finance is well known for you to work really crazy hours, and investment banking is actually probably the worst one. You're gonna be working somewhere between 80 to 120 hours a week easily. But you can make over $200,000 a year starting off in investment banking if you're able to land a job. And it's also basically a pipeline to even better jobs down the line. So investment banking, this one has to go into S tier. So one example would be an investment banking managing director. This is definitely not an entry-level job, but this is one of the ones that you can look for down the line, and they absolutely make bank. So again, these numbers are really hard to find. I couldn't find one on Glassdoor, but the numbers that I'm seeing are 350 to $600,000 a year. And that's just your base salary. Your bonus ranges somewhere between 100 to 200% of your base. So that's 750 to $1.8 million a year total compensation. So that's just one example, not an entry-level job, not even close to entry-level, but that one also is gonna go into S tier. Corporate banking is another type of banking. And again, I could probably make an entire video just on this stuff alone, maybe even an entire series of videos. But corporate banking, you're typically gonna focus more on the credit side of things. And you can also expect to make pretty good money from this, over $100,000 a year in your first year. So this one is also gonna go into A tier. Next one is director of financial planning and analysis. Now this is not an entry-level job, but you can expect to make around 113,000 to $175,000 a year. And so because of the fact that it's definitely not an entry-level job, but it still has pretty decent pay, I'm gonna go ahead and put this one into B tier. Next one on the list is going to be asset management. So you're gonna be working in asset management. This is another job you can get right out of school, and you can expect to make somewhere around 90 to $110,000 a year. So because of the fact that you can make $100,000 right after school, which is just totally unheard of in almost any other industry, this one is gonna go into A tier. So another route you could go is working in the field of credit. This is basically where you're analyzing company's finances and seeing how worthy they are of getting credit, basically the ability for them to borrow money. So you can make somewhere between 75 to $95,000 a year starting off in credit. That's pretty good. That puts it in the B tier range. Now a position you might move into is going to be credit risk manager. This is not an entry-level position, and a lot of the time they actually requires a master's degree, but you can make, according to Glassdoor, $67,000 to $134,000 a year. So overall, because it's not entry-level, because it might require a master's, this one is gonna go into B tier. Next one on the list is corporate development, which is similar to mergers and acquisitions, but you're actually working for the company that's making the acquisition this time. And I saw a lot of numbers thrown around out there, but this one's typically somewhere between 80 to $115,000 a year just starting out. So this can be entry-level. So that's pretty good. That one is gonna go into A tier. All right, so now we're gonna move into some of the ones that are extremely sought after. So these are very difficult to get into right out of school, but it's possible. So anybody who's familiar with finance is gonna know these. It's basically three different categories, private equity, hedge funds, and venture capital firms. And with all three of these, I'm just gonna go ahead and lump them together. I might make three separate ones or whatever, but they're all S tier, essentially. You can make somewhere between 125 to $250,000 a year just starting off after college, which that is just, I mean, that's just mind-blowing. There's a lot of people who work their entire lives, you know, 40-year careers, and they never get to like the $125,000 a year mark. And with these careers, you can actually hit that in the first year. A lot of people, even if they start off in something else like banking, for instance, this is their goal is to get into venture capital, hedge funds, or private equity. Next on the list is going to be equity research, and there's actually a lot of different career paths you can go down. One of them is equity analyst. So the Glassdoor salary range here is $64,000 to $164,000 a year, which is a pretty big range. And basically, you're analyzing company stocks, and then you're making predictions about where that stock is headed in the future. So this can be a pretty good one to go into. I'll put it into A tier. Next on the list is going to be a financial analyst. Now, these two things sound very similar, right? But financial analysts make much, much less, about $49,000 to $89,000 a year. Still pretty good, but for this list, not amazing. I'm gonna go ahead and put it into C tier. Another one you hear a lot about is finance manager. This is a very common one you see on BLS. And basically, this is the guy at the car dealership who tries to get your car financed for you and spits out a number. And according to BLS, finance managers make about $108,000 a year. Next one on the list is going to be a software developer that works in finance. So you have the skills of finance and software development at the same time. A lot of the time, you might be working for a quant hedge fund. So a hedge fund that focuses specifically on mathematics. And you can make really, really good money. We're talking like $100,000 a year starting out, a $200,000 total comp. So this one is gonna go into A tier. Next one on the list is going to be a finance quant trader. So again, you would be working at a quantitative hedge fund. A lot of the time, your base will be 125 to 150K in your first year working for them. And with the bonus, you might hit over $200,000. So this one is going into S tier. Next one on the list is going to be sales and trading. Now this can be a very high pressure, stressful type job. But the good thing about it is you're typically only working during trading hours. And this is one that you could potentially get right out of school and you might crack six figures. And so for that reason, I'm gonna go ahead and put this one into A tier. Next one on the list is going to be a hedge fund manager. And I think this one goes without saying, the typical hedge fund manager makes 2.4 million and that's just like tiny hedge funds. The highest paid hedge fund manager in the world, at least last year, is Izzy Englander. He made $3.8 billion. So yeah, obviously this one's gonna go into S tier. Definitely not an entry-level role. I mean, I guess you could just start your own hedge fund, but it'd be tough to get people to actually invest in it. Typically, you'd wanna get some experience first and then move into it. Next one on the list is going to be an accounting senior manager. A lot of overlap between accounting jobs and finance jobs. This is not an entry-level job. So let's say you're an accounting senior manager at like a big four firm, you'd expect to make probably $200,000 a year. And if you're a partner, something like 10 to 20 years into your partnership, you're probably making 300 to 350,000. One thing that's nice about this job is your base is probably gonna be higher than a finance job, but the downside is your bonus probably isn't gonna be as high. Next one on the list is going to be financial controller. I actually interviewed somebody, Bill Hanna. He is the financial controller on this channel. I interviewed him about accounting. It was a really cool interview, very valuable if you wanna go down that pathway. But financial controllers make about $235,000 a year. And basically a financial controller is kind of like a higher level accountant. There's a lot of other jobs you can move into from accounting in the finance industry. All right, so let me know down below, are there career paths that I missed out on? I think this video went a little bit longer than I was hoping. But yeah, let me know if there's career paths I missed out on. Let me know if you disagree with my rankings. Let me know if you want to put the rankings in a different order, or maybe there's some of them that I shouldn't have included or whatever. Let me know down below. Hope you enjoyed the video. Go ahead, gently tap that like button, hit the subscribe button, ring the notification bell. And if you enjoyed this one, I think you're really gonna love this video right here as well. And I'll see you next time. Bye.